An electrocardiograph is a device whose electrodes are set on a biological body to measure an electric potential difference between the electrodes. Information measured by an electrocardiograph is referred to as an electrocardiogram (ECG) and is widely used in the medical field. As information obtained from an electrocardiogram, for example, there are a P-wave, an R-wave, a QRS complex wave, a T-wave and so on. Because these waveforms are used for a synchronization signal of a medical diagnosis device capable of electrocardiographic synchronization imaging in addition to diagnosis of various types of cardiac disease, automatic detection of such waveforms is important in terms of industrial applications.
When a specific waveform such as an R-wave is detected from an ECG signal, time needed for detection becomes longer in the case of enhancing reliability of the detection, which makes a delay time longer. On the other hand, reliability of the detection declines in the case of shortening a delay time. As just described, existing methods are not satisfactory in terms of achieving both high reliability of detection and a short delay time. Here, high reliability of detection means that probability of correctly detecting a specific waveform to be detected is high and probability of incorrectly detecting a waveform except the specific waveform to be detected is low.
Accordingly, an ECG waveform detecting apparatus, an ECG waveform detecting program and an ECG synchronization imaging apparatus which can achieve both high reliability of detection and a short delay time have been desired.